Former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn “confirmed” Robert Mueller was interviewed for the job of FBI director just before he was appointed special counsel in May 2017, according to a Republican congressman who was in the room of McGahn’s closed-door testimony.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Floridian lawmaker under investigation for potential obstruction of justice in a criminal sex inquiry, told Newsmax on Friday following a closed-door session with McGahn, who was testifying about the special counsel’s report on the Russia investigation, that the interview did not go how House Democrats had hoped after a yearslong court fight.
“During the Russia hoax, there was a real question as to whether or not Robert Mueller became special counsel after having gotten rejected wanting his old job back as FBI director,” Gaetz added. “One thing I found very telling is that today, Don McGahn confirmed that Mueller was interviewed for the position of FBI director. He did not receive that position. And just a day, just hours later after being denied that, he then had the opportunity to go and pursue the president with criminal process. I think that is very telling and it really sheds lights on the genesis of the Mueller probe. Not illegal conduct but really a desire for retribution.”
ROBERT MUELLER REVEALS WHY HE BECAME SPECIAL COUNSEL
In the past, former President Donald Trump contended Mueller interviewed for the top FBI spot the day before he was appointed special counsel in May 2017, claiming it presented a conflict of interest. Meanwhile, Mueller, who had been FBI director from 2001 through 2013, insisted under oath before Congress he went to the White House with the understanding he was only providing advice about the FBI.
.@RepMattGaetz: “Don McGahn did not do what Democrats wanted him to do today.” @seanspicer @LyndsayMKeith https://t.co/VlT7z8drtO pic.twitter.com/Zg6w7K2J7V
— Newsmax (@newsmax) June 4, 2021
Mueller’s April 2019 report noted Trump told advisers such as McGahn and White House strategist Steve Bannon that Mueller “had interviewed for the FBI Director position shortly before being appointed as Special Counsel.” Mueller also reported “the president’s advisors pushed back on his assertion of conflicts, telling the President they did not count as true conflicts.”
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A transcript of McGahn’s closed-door interview is expected to be released within a week.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, declined to get into specifics, but said McGahn “testified at length to an extremely dangerous period in our nation’s history — in which President Trump, increasingly unhinged and fearful of his own liability, attempted to obstruct the Mueller investigation at every turn. Mr. McGahn was clearly distressed by President Trump’s refusal to follow his legal advice, again and again, and he shed new light on several troubling events today.”
The scope of the long-awaited interview on Friday was “limited” to specific topics, including “information attributed to Mr. McGahn in the publicly available portions of the Mueller Report and events that the publicly available portions of the Mueller Report indicate involved Mr. McGahn,” according to the agreement struck between House Democrats and the Justice Department. Meanwhile, “communications between Mr. McGahn and other Executive Branch officials that are not disclosed in the publicly available portions of the Mueller Report are outside of the scope of the interview.”
Mueller’s investigation did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Kremlin but laid out 10 possible instances of obstruction of justice. Prior to the release of Mueller’s report, then-Attorney General William Barr released a summary of its principal conclusions which said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided there was not sufficient evidence to establish an obstruction crime had occurred.
